How Would the Biotech Landscape Change After the Election?

This is the 10th US Election I am following personally. I remember US elections going back to 1980 (Carter vs Reagan) at a time when I was attending a kindergarten in Charlotte, North Carolina and Iran hostage crisis was unfolding. The last time I remember a contested and controversial US election was between George W. Bush and Al Gore of Election 2000.

This year’s Election has taken everything to a new level (high or low) depending on what you’d be measuring. Besides all the rhetoric and unbelievable factoids we are learning about candidates everyday, we wonder how this election would impact the FDA, reimbursement and generally the life sciences sector.

As many of you know, the head the the FDA (the Commissioner) reports to the Secretary of Health and Human Services who reports to the President and is part of the President’s cabinet. Both are appointed by the President and confirmed (or not) by the Senate. So the choice Americans make on the president impacts who he or she chooses for the head of the FDA and the direction FDA would take.

Also, we are entering unchartered waters in the US regarding the reimbursement debate. There has not been another time in the US history where drug pricing and the value of new medicines have been so controversial and debated. In my opinion, the few bad apples (Martin Shkreli, Mylan and others) are giving the whole industry a bad reputation. At a BIO CEO/Investor Forum last week in San Francisco, a number of protestors interrupted the plenary lunch session and prevented many of us from attending the session.

As members of the life science community and organizations lobbying for our sector, we ought to do a better job educating the public on a tall task we have chosen for our careers. No other sector is as risky as the life science sector and many of us as life science entrepreneurs end up risking our savings and spend our careers trying to bring new medicines to patients. Many of these ventures do not ever make it. The true value of the drug, the expense and risk that takes to bring a medicine to patients, needs to be better communicated.

On November 17th (a few days after the US Election) Novateur experts will discuss latest FDA trends on devices and therapeutics. Please join us for a lively and informative panel at a LifeSciences BC Event.